Gillibrand Statement After Senate Armed Services Passed Annual Defense Bill Reversing Proposed Cuts Commissary Benefits and New Tricare Fees-Incdes Gillibrand Backed Measures to Help Protect Victims of Sexual Assault and Provide Care for Military Children with Developmental Disabilities

Statement

Gillibrand Chaired Subcommittee Included Sexual Assault Reforms by Senators McCaskill, Ayotte & Fischer Passed on Senate Floor Earlier This Year But Still Awaits Passage by House of Representatives Plus Important New Gillibrand Reform On Usage of Therapy Records At Trial -- Will Offer Military Justice Improvement Act on Full Senate Floor.

U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Chair of the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Personnel, released the following statement today after the full Armed Services Committee passed its version of the annual defense bill known as the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Gillibrand included a series of measures authored by Senators McCaskill, Ayotte and Fischer aimed at strengthening protections for victims of military sexual assault, in addition to her own measure protecting sexual assault survivors' mental health records to ensure that victims aren't afraid to seek care because their records will likely be used in courts martial. Gillibrand also secured among others approval of measures ensuring critical care for military children with developmental disabilities, requiring the Department of Defense to develop a way to track military family suicides and a measure directing the services to create cyber career tracks.

The bill also reversed the Pentagon's proposed cuts to military families' commissary benefits and new TRICARE fees that were opposed by Gillibrand. The Senator will continue to work towards repealing other cuts to military personnel and their families included in the bill. The FY'15 NDAA will now head to the Senate floor for passage by the full Senate later this year.

"I want to thank Senator Graham for his hard work towards crafting a bipartisan proposal with me in our Personnel Subcommittee as the Ranking Member. With this bill, we continued to take steps forward in the battle against the scourge of sexual assaults in our military. In light of the fact legislation passed by Senators McCaskill, Ayotte and Fischer passed on the Senate floor this past March still awaits passage by the House of Representatives, we have included that proposal here, along with a badly needed new protection of survivors' mental health records. I have already heard from one Special Victims Counsel who is advising survivors against seeking therapy because the records could be used against them during a trial. It is unacceptable for any servicemember to live in fear of seeking mental health treatment, especially with so many survivors struggling with PTSD, this is a practice that must be changed immediately.

"But I believe our work on this issue is still far from done until we have restored trust in the system by creating an independent and objective military justice system worthy of our servicemembers' sacrifice. We need cases to move forward based solely on the evidence, and judged based on the merits, not political pressure or other non-legal considerations. Month after month we continue to see troubling new evidence of how much further we have to go to solve the problem of sexual assaults in our military. This is a debate for the entire Senate to have, so our bipartisan coalition will continue to work harder than ever in the coming year to strengthen our military because that is our duty, and we will continue to gather evidence and make the case to our colleagues.

"While I am pleased we were able to reverse some of the Pentagon's proposed cuts to military personnel and their families that I opposed, I continue to have concerns about other proposals including shrinking housing allowances and increases to pharmacy co-pays because it preempts the findings of the Military Compensation and Retirement Modernization Commission and because of the potential harm it might cause to our troops, retirees and their families -- especially our lower enlisted troops. Our servicemembers and their families are our greatest assets and they should be treated as such by this Congress. And that's one reason why we worked hard in this bill to require the Department to develop a plan to provide children of military families living with autism and other developmental disabilities access to the behavioral treatment they desperately need and deserve or explain why it cannot. It is simply wrong for any military family who sacrifices so much for our country to be denied essential services for their child living with autism and I will be carefully monitoring the Department's efforts."

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